Why not find what happened or what is going on in the Japanese Deaf Community?

Deaf organizations request for captioning broadcast of constituency political view

June 28, 2013

An Upper House election is scheduled for mid-July, this year.

The
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications revised the enforcement
provision of broadcast of political views about Upper House election
proportional representation on June 10.

It means when there is
the proposal from a political party, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (Japan
Broadcasting Association: NHK) will caption broadcast of political views
of proportional representation by its candidate.

So, what a political party appeals will be "read for" those who do not understand sign language.

According
to the Ministry and NHK, since a local station has a limitation in
staffs or equipment, it is impossible to caption broadcast of a
constituency.

Although sign-language interpreting is not accepted in the
constituency of the Upper House election, either, the gubernatorial
election in all prefectures is possible for interpreting since 2011.

According
to the Ministry, the number of the certified sign language interpreter
for broadcast of political views is uneven across the country, and even
rural areas have fewer.

As the Upper House election takes place all at once in the whole
country, it is reportedly because there is a possibility that the
certified interpreters may be less to meet the information needs of the
Deaf community.

According to the Japanese Federation of the Deaf
and other deaf organizations, there are about 50,000 people with
hearing loss and understand sign language.

If the elder with hearing loss also are included, it will be expected the number goes up to millions.

Six
organizations including Japanese Federation of the Deaf asked for the
improvement of the situation, sending the open letter to each political
party.